Red Brick Games

Just a quick post to show some improvements I’m making to the heads-up display (HUD).

The thing that’s changed here is the wood motif around the HUD dialogs.  Also the selection dialog (bottom center) shows more details than before.  And of course, I’ve finally updated the unit portraits.

This is still a work in progress, but I have to say I’m liking how it’s turning out.

If I have time, I’d like to do three different ”skins” for the HUD, one for each race.  If I do that , I’ll probably make this one the one for the humans, since it’s got a clean wooden look that kind of fits them.  For the Orcs, they could have a wood theme too but it could be more crudely-built, like maybe with some bent nails sticking out of the dialogs.  The Martians could have a technology-themed motif with, computer displays.

BTW for anyone who wants to link to this site, please go right ahead.  Eventually, I plan to turn redbrickgames.com into a store front, so the more traffic the better.  You can use the address http://redbrickgames.com/pix/redbrick88.png 

to show the little  logo from a different web site.

For a random map in an RTS to be “fair”, each player’s initial starting position needs to have roughly the same number of resources around it.  I’m working on an algorithm that estimates the resource “yield” of a given base position, in order to assign fairer starting positions.

So far, I’d have to say the algorithm works so-so. It has eliminated the worst unfairness, but still needs improvement.  Here is a screenshot showing inital base positions and the tree distribution around them.  (the green dots are trees and the colored squares are bases).

Pretty good, except for the dark-blue base, which looks shortchanged.  Not only are there fewer trees around it, it also backs up against a cliff, so the trees to its west aren’t easily accessible.  It looks like my current algorithm produces “ok” results, but still needs work.

Here’s something nifty, though.  I’ve hooked up this same algorithm into the A.I.  Now, when an A.I. player decides to build a new base, he doesn’t just pick a random position anymore.  He picks the best-yielding position he’s seen, predicated somewhat on not being too far from his current base(s).  This has really made the A.I. a lot more fun to play against.

Here’s a game where I watched the A.I. in action.  I teamed up with our old friend, Kork, against a blue Martian.  Kork is orange and I’m red.

Initial base placement:

Blue took an early lead and planted two new bases, claiming one spot just before Kork got there himself.  Apparently both A.I. players saw and liked the same spot.

Kork eventually found another good spot, on a plateau farther east, but lost valuable time while blue put up yet another new base.  Notice that the A.I. players have started to clear-cut the forest around their older bases.

Blue started sending waves of soldiers against Kork.  Here’s a fairly big wave about to hit Kork’s first base.  I had given blue a -10% handicap, though, to help even things up, and Kork managed to fight this wave off.

Kork proved surprisingly resilient.  This is yet another, smaller, attack by blue, against the same base.

Finally Kork’s first base falls.  He was fighting against four bases with only two, after all.  Now he’s down to one base.

Figuring Kork is close to capitulation, I come to his aid and steam-roll two of blue’s bases.  (It helps when you’re the developer and can cheat by summoning huge armies :) )

Trying to end the game, I take out another of blue’s bases.  But guess what!  Blue sneaks past my forces, and re-plants a base near one of his old spots.

I level that base too.  Interstingly, while I take a breather, Kork comes in and sets up shop near the same spot.

So that’s an example of what the player-level A.I. can do now.  It’s really starting to look pretty good.  It knows how to find good base spots, doesn’t build too close to existing bases, and can make a comeback after being beaten back.  Pretty exciting!
 

Couple of pretty good science fiction short stories I read recently:

Light of Other Days

The Dandelion Girl

Light of Other Days has an interesting concept of “slow glass”, an engineered type of glass through which light passes extremely slowly. In the story the glass is “farmed” in scenic areas, then used as window panes in the city. Light takes a year to pass through the glass, so for a year the city dwellers get a scenic rural view in their home instead of a city view.

I thought the idea of slow glass was fascinating. Light does slow down when it goes through materials and maybe that could be engineered. Though holding a year’s worth of sunlight seems far out. With that much energy stored in a thin pane of glass, you’d think it’d just melt from its own heat. Or if you ever accidentally cracked the glass, boom! - it explodes and sets your house on fire. lol, I think the home insurance industry would frown on that. If slow glass was ever invented and really worked, it’d probably find much better use as a battery than a window pane.

I’m happy to say, Orcs vs. Martians can probably be called an actual game now.  I’ve added the logic to detect when a game is won, and when it is, the game ends and shows the results screen.  That, coupled with improved AI, has made OvM start feeling like a real game.

…not a game that people would buy, not yet, but a game nonetheless :)

Some things that are working now:

Game results screen
I’ve got this screen grouping teams together and showing them in the order of team scores.  Individual player stats are visible too.  It’s got “progress” bars behind the scores/stats, in the same style as Starcraft.  I plan to colorize the bars to make it easy to see the individual players’ contributions to the total team stats.

In this game I teamed up with our old friend, Kork, and went after three AI teams.

Sadly, Kork and I got trounced.  @#$% Martians.

Unit-level AI
Military units now spread themselves out around their base to protect it better, and run to engage nearby enemies.  They also return if they wander off too far.  Ranged units are now smart enough to go only as close as necessary to bring their target into range, maximizing their advantage over melee units.

Melee units
There are melee units now!  Orcs have axemen, Martians have battle-bots, and humans have swordsmen.  (Each race now has three unit types: melee, ranged, and worker)

Networking
I fixed several bugs and crashes that crept in since I last tested networked games.  LAN games now work again, although with some visual artifacts.  I also made some progress on getting random maps to work in networked games, but that feature is still a work in progress.

Password-protected servers
Hooked up the GUI to the logic for this feature, and verified it works.  (this was a minor effort since Torque does most of the work)

Installer
I got the installer done!  It includes the ability to un-install via Windows’ Add/Remove Programs, and to create Start menu shortcuts.  The only thing it doesn’t do yet is put a shortcut on the desktop.  The installer is a single setup.exe, currently weighing in at 12MB.

I created the installer using NSIS.  Before chosing NSIS I read nothing but praise for it, but after using it I am slightly disappointed.  True, NSIS is pretty easy to use.  But -

For one thing, an NSIS installer’s GUI looks significantly different from the standard Windows installer GUI.  That’s a downside, especially for an indie application.  When you think about it, a user who installs an indie app is taking a certain amount of risk.  How does the user know the app doesn’t contain spyware, or other hidden malware?  After all, the indie company is some tiny entity the user has never heard of.  If the app has a windows-standard installer GUI, that lends a certain credibility to the app, and helps reassure the user.  It increases the chances the user will trust the app and eventually buy it.

Also, the syntax of NSIS’s internal installer script is the “clunkiest”, for lack of a better word, syntax I’ve ever seen for a scripting language.  And NSIS isn’t smart enough to simply un-install the files that it originally installed.  You have write an explicit uninstall script, like you wrote the install script, leading to redundant code.

—–

It’s been pretty fun test-playing the game, now that it’s playable.  Martians are by far the most powerful race, owing to their high-tech weapons.  But Martians also have the fewest hit points, so if the Orc horde ever manages to get close, it gets ugly fast for the Martians :)

Orcs are the second-best race, owing to immense hit points, pretty good speed, and powerful melee attacks.

Then there’s the human race…poor blighters :)  They’ve got neither good hit points, nor powerful weapons.  They tend to lose.

I think I will give humans the advantage of the best technology tree, which will eventually allow them to upgrade their weapons, if they can survive long enough.  To help them survive, I’ll probably give them the strongest buildings. (which kind of makes sense…Orcs aren’t known for good buildings, and the Martians have crash-landed, so they don’t have much in the way of construction tools.)

I’m not sure how far I’ll let humans upgrade their technology.  Hmm… it would be funny to see Middle-Earth humans attacking the Orc horde, with gatling guns :)  Or with a thermonuclear device.  Humorous possibilities abound, for this game.